The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
by Miss. RoseGold
Summary: Brick had never been an overly festive person. He preferred to spend Christmas by himself, in his room, making no noise and pretending that he didn't exist. So, when a certain pink Puff tries to rope him in spending the holidays with her and her family – he's less than thrilled.


**The Most Wonderful Time of the Year**

**Summary:** _Brick had never been an overly festive person. He preferred to spend Christmas by himself, in his room, making no noise and pretending that he didn't exist. So, when a certain pink Puff tries to rope him in spending the holidays with her and her family – he's less than thrilled. _

**Authors note: **Oh my god. A story focused on the Reds for once. I must be ill.

Brick is a salty bastard in this one – he's not a holiday person.

The Powerpuff girls do not belong to me and as always, they have human appendages. Please enjoy.

The Reds are in their mid-twenties here.

* * *

It wasn't exactly a secret that Christmas was Blossom's favourite time of the year.

The leader of the Powerpuff Girls absolutely adored the festivities that the end of the year had to offer. She loved flying over Townsville at night with her sisters to scope out the multiple Chiasmas markets around the city, and she especially loved decorating her house and the Christmas tree when she wasn't out visiting with the children who couldn't go home for the holidays, at Townsville hospital. Not to mention that she loved the colder weather. Maybe it was the fact that her special power was ice, but who could say.

But most of all, she liked the holidays because it was the one time of the year that all of her family and friends could get together to relax and spend time with each other – a rare occurrence for her and her family. Even her 'wild-man' Uncle Eugene came out of the wilderness to spend the holidays at her house, and even more recently – two out of the three Rowdyruff's; the Baron of Berserk and the Dumber than the Dumbest – her sister's boyfriend's respectively – came to their house to celebrate, and had been doing so for the past couple of years.

Two of them, that is. The third brother, a certain cap-wearing, red-eyed Rowdyruff, was nowhere to be seen.

She knew she shouldn't bother with it. If her counterpart didn't want to come with his brothers, then he didn't have to – she knew there was still more than a little bit of tension between him and her family – but it didn't stop her from wondering what he got up to during the holidays.

It wasn't anything criminal. If it was, she'd be the first to know, but it seemed that Brick became oddly silent come the end of the year.

It made her more curious then it probably should have.

So, when Butch – who was over at her house one day to take Buttercup snowboarding, and was anxiously waiting for said sister to find her gear – let it slip to her that his elusive older brother hated the holidays – she was floored.

To Blossom – hearing that was ridiculous. She didn't know anyone who _didn't_ like Christmas. It was a time for people to come together, if only for a little while, and relax with family. It was always the most pleasant time of year for her – even if some of the Christmases that she had with her family in the year's prior had gotten a little out of hand (okay, more than a little, but they lived in Townsville: Monster Capitol of the U.S.A, what did they expect?).

So, upon hearing that her own counterpart didn't like the holiday was almost surprising to her. She had assumed that he would have loved this holiday… maybe for reasons different from her own, but regardless.

"So, what's he doing then?" she asked Butch incredulously. "Nothing, he just hunkers down in his room for about a week and barely comes out. He's not a festive guy Pink, don't worry about it." Butch shrugged.

"Has he always been like that?"

"He's become more of a recluse in the last couple of years. I don't think he's got the energy to keep up with all the holiday bullshit." Butch shrugged again. "It's pretty typical behavior for him."

"So for the last couple of years that you and Boomer have been over here he's been-"

"At home, in his room, making no noise, doing absolutely nothing." Butch finished. "Hell, he's so quiet sometimes I forget that he's even in the house."

"Well that's… sad." Blossom finally muttered. "Would he come here with you and Boomer?" Butch scrunched up his nose. "No idea. Never seemed too keen on it. Why? Are you inviting him over?"

"I don't see why not. Christmas is the time to get together with friends and family, and Brick is included in that equation somewhere. You and Boomer are always here, so Brick should come as well – no one should be alone during the holidays." Butch snorted. "Well, you can ask him if you want. He'll probably say no, but what the hell. I don't know where he is though."

Just then, Blossom saw a red streak dart across the sky just outside the window, headed for Townsville central park. If she had blinked, she'd have missed it. But she already knew who it was.

"Stay there Butch, I'm going to go ask him."

.

.

Brick landed in the park with a soft _crunch_ of snow beneath his boots.

He took a deep breath in, filling his lungs with the cold, crisp air, before digging into his coat pocket, looking for his cigarettes.

He finally fished them out and shook a couple of the white sticks into his hand, scowling as only a few fell into his palm. _Christ, he had almost gone through another box. That had to be what? The fifth one already? It wasn't even Christmas eve yet. _

He always smoked more when the holidays came around. It was a filthy human habit that he had picked up during university, but it was the only way he made it through the holidays and the utter bullshit that accompanied them every year. He groaned as he selected one out of the cigarettes and put the box away, lighting the stick with a lick of flame from his fingertip as he did so.

He inhaled the blue-tinged smoke into his lungs and held it for a moment before letting it out with a sigh. Brick had never been an overly festive person. He preferred to spend Christmas by himself, in his room, making no noise and pretending that he didn't exist. That was more than fine with him. As an added bonus, his brothers were out of the house more often than not around this time of year at the Utonium residence, and as much as he loved them – they were a lot to deal with on a daily basis, and he was starting to think that he loved an empty house slightly more.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't hear light feet landing softly on the snowy ground behind him.

"You know that's bad for you."

Brick snorted and turned around, only to see his counterpart standing behind him, bunded up in her light pink coat, giving him a disapproving look. He laughed. "Pinky, it's nice to see you too. You know as well as I do that it's bad for _normal_ people. It doesn't do much for us." He raised a brow. "Why are _you_ here?" His nose crinkled. "Did my brothers send you? You can tell them that I'm not here. I'm trying to keep a low profile for the next couple weeks."

"Actually, I came here on my own accord, looking for you."

Brick paused. Well this was news to him – normally the red counterparts only spoke to each other at social occasions or when they were pulled along on dates with their respective siblings. It's not that they had any animosity towards each other, (not anymore at least) but after years of being on opposing sides, they both found it hard to view the other in a different light. Old habits die hard after all.

He took a drag. "Alright, I'll bite, why did you come looking for me?"

"A little green birdy told me you don't like the holidays. I'm curious about why that might be."

He groaned. "Butch?" a nod. "Butch."

"Goddamnit."

"He also told me that you'd rather be by yourself, and that's pretty… well, you know." The pink Puff trailed off and scuffed the toe of her boot on the snow-covered ground. "I would have thought that you'd spend it with one of your dads at the very least."

"What? Mojo and HIM?" Brick laughed. "Not a chance sweetheart. There's a reason why my brothers spend a lot of time with your family during the holidays. Dad and Dad-Mom can be a little… overbearing."

"But you're still are alone on actual Christmas day?" Blossom pressed. Brick nodded. "I prefer it that way, yes."

Blossom shook her head. "That sounds lonely. This time of year is supposed to be spent with people you care about. I know that you're obviously not the biggest fan of me and my family-" Brick snorted, "But-" Blossom chose to ignore his scoff. "I feel pretty bad about you not having anyone to spend them with."

"I don't want your pity Puff, nor do I need it. Just get to the point Pinky, what do you want?"

"Your brothers are over… why don't you come with them and spend the holidays with us? That way you can be with them and not alone."

Brick stared at her blankly. He blinked at her owlishly for a moment, before what she was suggesting finally sunk in. He laughed loudly, and took a drag of his cigarette, still sniggering. "No thanks babe. I'm good."

Blossom paused. She didn't know why she tried as much as she did with him, she really didn't – considering that he never appreciated or wanted her help. She attributed it to the fact that they were counterparts and that she – on some level – was always curious about what he was up to. Even if they hadn't always been on the best terms… even if it was Brick – she still believed that he still should have someone to be with during the holidays.

She paused, "Are you sure?"

Piercing red eyes narrowed at her. "I am. Why are you so instant on this, toots?"

"You're my counterpart… I'd be lying if I said that I didn't care about you… if only slightly."

"Oh, I'm touched – that really warms the cockles of my cold, dead heart, but I'll still pass." Brick replied snidely, as he dramatically put his hand over his heart and flicked the ashy top off the cigarette in his other hand. Blossom almost gaped at him. She didn't truthfully know that she had been expecting, but it hadn't been this.

"I don't understand why you're acting like this. Butch and Boomer have already agreed to come over on Christmas, so why won't you?" Blossom sighed, putting her hands on her hips. "I understand that you're not a festive person, but I don't particularly want to leave you alone on the holidays either."

"To be fair, they don't really like Christmas either – they just don't hate it as much as I do."

Blossom groaned internally. He wasn't going to make this easy for her. Sometimes she wished that she didn't give as much of a damn about him as she did, but for reasons that she couldn't explain, she did. Maybe a little too much.

And this is what she gets for being nice.

"Enlighten me then? What's so bad about them? If I didn't know any better, I would have assumed that you loved them. You know, time off and presents and all of that." Blossom asked, raising a perfectly arched brow as she did so.

"When I was a kid maybe. Now? Hell no. Boomer does a little, but that's because he _is_ a kid, and Butch is a big fucking kid, which is even worse." Brick scoffed as he blew a puff of smoke out from his nostrils and fixed his counterpart with a flat red gaze.

"You really wanna know why I hate them so much? Let me tell you my reasoning."

Before Blossom could open her mouth with a comeback, Brick inhaled a large drag from his cigarette and blew out the blue tinged smoke. He coughing slightly and held up one finger. "_First_ of all, Christmas is expensive as hell. People are apparently supposed to spend all of their money on other people just because big corporate companies pump a ton of money into superficial marketing or whatever. Well guess what babe," He looked up at her, clearly exasperated. "The big corporate companies don't pay my fucking bills now do they? And _someone _here made it so I can't just steal shit now."

Blossom rubbed the side of her head with a perfectly manicured hand – knowing full well that he was referring to her and one of the many rules she and her sisters had put in place to keep Brick and his siblings out of prison… for the hundredth time.

"You wouldn't be going to juvie this time if you got caught, you'd be going straight to a maximum-security prison, and you and your brothers would constantly be given shots of Antidote X so you'd be rendered powerless and couldn't escape." Blossom corrected him tartly. "Somehow I don't think you want that. My sisters and I did what we did so we could keep you out of the system as much as possible, because believe me; you wouldn't have liked what the city would have done if we hadn't stepped in – you're welcome, by the way." she sighed. "Now, the holidays are expensive, I'll give you that one, but I don't think that's enough of a reason to hate-"

"I'm not finished." Brick interrupted her, holding up a second finger. "_Secondly. _Christmas is a shitload of responsibility when you're an adult." He gestured between the two of them as he took another drag from his cigarette as he began to count on his fingers. "You have to put up a goddamn dead tree in your house AND decorate the thing. Then, you have to cook enough dinner to feed a small army, and on top of that, you have to wrap all of the fucking presents that you struggled for weeks to find, because _apparently _you can't just give people their shit. It has to have a big, fancy bow on it or else they get pissed."

"It sounds like you speak from experience." Blossom mused patently, as Brick threw down his cigarette and stomped it out with his heel. "It's because I used to do all of it when my brothers and I were younger and still lived primarily with Mojo." Brick clarified. "Mojo couldn't be bothered half the time and HIM doesn't like Christmas all – for obvious reasons – but we still have dinner and do gifts with him, but I was the one in change of handling my brothers. Shocker." He rolled his eyes.

"and let me tell you, when you have brother's like mine, who you've had to care for since you were, _quite literally_ first created – you don't want any added responsibility. All I wanted to do was sleep for sixteen hours, but I couldn't even do that."

"Alright fair," Blossom admitted after a moment, thinking back to all the chaotic Christmas's she had with her sisters and father. "I understand that, but I've been in the same boat as you and I still don't hate Christmas."

Brick only snorted. "That's because you're a goodie-goodie sweetheart, I'm sure that you secretly loved it." he sighed as he fished around in his pocket, looking for another smoke. "I fucking miss the days where I could wake up feeling fully energized after two hours of sleep at four in the morning, tear through my presents, and then pass the fuck out in a pile of my loot at noon."

Blossom couldn't hold back a laugh at his statement as he pulled out his cigarette pack and pulled another one out of the packaging, before lighting it with a small lick of flame from the tip of his finger. He let it burn thoughtfully for a moment, before his eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers at her.

"Also, another thing: you don't even get a Christmas break when you're an adult – which just so happened to be the one thing that I used to look forward to when we were teenagers." He shook his head gingerly before adjusting his trademark baseball cap. "When we were in high school, everyone in their mother was like: _Oh, it's Christmas and Santa's coming to town? Here, just take a fucking _month_ off school. See you assholes next year – literally._ Now, people are like: _Guess what? Santa doesn't give a shit about you. You want a damn break? Here's an hour, some eggnog and rum and six pounds of coal._"

"I'm assuming you got a lot of coal from him when you and your brothers were younger." Blossom asked, struggling to hold back a grin.

"Babe, I _still _get coal in my stocking from the big man. I assure you, he doesn't forget – but I feel better knowing Princess does too."

Brick growled irritably as he took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair before jamming it back on his head as he held up a third finger. "Adding on to my earlier dinner comment: people are always saying that you need to dress up for dinner, just because – but that's bullshit because nobody gives a shit the other 364 days of the year, so I don't see why Christmas is any different." He snorted and spoke in a high falsetto, _"You're a grown man, you can't wear boxers to the table, it's a fucking disgrace."_

"Mojo?" Blossom asked, only for Brick to laugh. "No, HIM actually." Causing both red counterparts to laugh at the thought of the Devil himself scolding the oldest Rowdyruff about his choice in dinnerware. Brick rolled his eyes and held up a fourth finger on his free hand as he took a quick drag.

"Not to mention, when you're an adult, you're forced to talk all of your "relatives" and god knows I fucking _hated it_. When you're older you can't pretend that you don't know someone anymore. When you were a kid, you could just look at someone you didn't want to talk to and say: _I don't know who the fuck that is._ You know?"

"You have relatives?" Blossom asked in amazement, wondering how she had only just heard about this now, only for Brick to shake his head.

"Not actual relatives. More or less HIM and Mojo would hold a massive conference around this time and would invite all the major crime families in the city to it. Usually it was to plot about ways to destroy you and your sisters, but I digress." He continued on noticing that Blossom was turning red in the face.

"HIM expected my brothers and I to talk to _all_ of them, and you can trust me when I tell you it was horrible. What eight-year-old wants to talk politics and stats – aside from you that is." He quickly added, seeing her open her mouth. "When we were younger, we used to pretend that we didn't know any of them, but we couldn't get out of it when we got older – playing dumb didn't work anymore."

He paused. "Let me rephrase that. _Butch and I_ couldn't pay dumb anymore. Boomer got away with it for a bit longer, but that's because he actually is dumb."

"I don't think Bubbles would take too kindly to hearing you say that…" Blossom weakly protested, only for Brick to let out a sound that was mix between a laugh and a snort.

"That's because she knows it too, she's just too nice for her own good and doesn't want to admit it." Brick snorted. He looked out over the park thoughtfully, watching as young children played in the snow a few yards from them.

He hummed to himself as he nodded at the kids "You know what's really fucking wild babe? Everybody we know – or at least most people we knew from high school – have and or, are starting to have kids now, and I promise you they're all absolute fucking _monsters_ during Christmas. Shit, they make the monsters that you and your sisters fight look like angels – the kids, that is."

He looked at her with a mixture of bewilderment and cringe written across his features. "Did you know Mitch is expecting a kid with Robin? MITCH of all people. This is MITCH we're talking about."

"I know, she met up with my sisters and I recently and told us about it." Blossom smiled warmly at him, only for Brick to groan at her reply. "That kid has no chance. It's going to be so dumb – if I cared more, I'd almost feel bad."

"BRICK!"

"Oh, come _on_ Babe, you know how much pot Mitch smoked in school – their kid is going to come into the world perpetually stoned out of its mind."

"From what Buttercup was telling me, he hasn't done it in years – he stopped when he and Robin got serious in college." Blossom countered.

"Funny, Butch could tell you a different story."

"WHAT?"

"MY POINT BEING-" Brick yelled in an attempt to veer them back on course – making a mental note to text Butch afterwards and tell him to warn Mitch ahead of time, and to deny everything that had been said – "Kids are just entitled nightmares during Christmas. They go around destroying houses just because they got some toy that they didn't even deserve."

"Funny, I could say that the same thing could apply to you and your brothers." Blossom shot back snidely but to her surprise Brick only nodded. "Oh, I know, that's what I mean – and now that I'm older I finally get it. I think I may owe HIM and Mojo an apology for the years of shit my brother's and I put them through. Hell if I'm going to have kids, Blossom. We don't need any more bastards like my brother's and I in the world."

The red Ruff sighed tiredly, catching Blossom off-guard as he tossed his cigarette to the ground, stomping on it. "If, for some reason, I haven't been clear enough and you still can't figure out why it is that I don't like the holidays, I'll summarize it for you: All Christmas is, is work. That's all it's ever been for me, and that's all it'll ever be."

He sighed, closing his eyes and tilted his face up towards the sky. "Honestly Bloss – I'm just tired of it. It's not fun and it never really has been."

For a moment, there was an odd silence between the two counterparts as Blossom let his words sink in. He had never truly gotten to enjoy the holidays like she and her sisters had. With a family who was even more crazy then hers and brother's like Butch and Boomer – who could be more than a handful at times – no wonder he had never gotten to fully relax and enjoy himself.

When Blossom thought of it that way – it was almost a little sad. It seemed like he hadn't ever really gotten the chance to be a kid in the first place.

"Well," she started tentatively, making Brick open one red orb to look at her. "My original offer still stands. I meant it when I told you that I didn't want you to be alone this year, so why don't you come over to my house with Butch and Boomer- you don't have to do anything to help." She added quickly as she saw him open his mouth. "Just come, sit down, and have dinner with us. If you really don't like the atmosphere, you can go home, and I won't ever try to rope you into celebrating with anyone ever again."

Brick was still quiet, so Blossom sighed again. "I also promise to never speak of it again. Does that help?"

Brick pondered her offer for a moment. Truthfully, it didn't sound all that bad to him. A comfy chair, free food, and best of all, his brothers would be busy with her sisters, so he didn't even have to keep them in line. The offer was almost too good to be true.

"I don't have to do anything?" he clarified suspiciously. Blossom nodded. "Just come and hang out for a while and have some dinner – you can take some leftovers home. Bubbles is cooking."

"Fine." Brick found himself agreeing before he could think it over. Boomer often brought home leftovers of whatever Bubbles fed him when he was over with her, and Brick would be lying if said that he hadn't sneaked some of her cooking when his youngest brother wasn't looking. He didn't know what it was, but he was half convinced that the blue Puff was some sort of culinary genius. If she was cooking a full course meal, he was more than willing to put up with whatever dumb, festive shit that came with it.

"I'm only coming for the food." He added on quickly, seeing Blossom's bemused expression. "That's it. don't get any ideas."

"Sure." Blossom snickered, lightly punching him on the arm. "I'll let you have that." She winked at the red Rowdy. "and I won't even make you dress up to eat, don't worry." She tried to bite back a few more giggles at the relived look that washed over her counterpart's face before straightening up. "Dinner is on Christmas eve, just come over with Butch and Boomer. You won't regret it, I promise."

She smiled at him and for some strange reason, Brick felt his heart speed up a little bit. "For what it's worth, I'm glad that you're coming Brick. I'll see you around." With that, she jetted off into the sky with a streak of brilliant pink, leaving Brick alone in the park.

He smirked as he stared after her, watching her trademark streak fade away into the sky as she headed for home.

_Maybe, just maybe… the holidays this year wouldn't be so horrible. He had a certain pink-eyed girl to thank for that. _


End file.
